1. Field of the Invention
The taking of medicine is so regular and so uneventful that many people have difficulty a short time later remembering whether they have, or have not, taken a particular dose. This problem has been recognized for some time, and a variety of mechanical arrangements have been proposed to allow the patient to check, so as to be relieved of worry or to prevent under medication or over medication. The present invention is in the field of devices which display a serial index mark, advancing it each time the bottle is opened.
2. Description of Prior Art
A considerable number of pill-timing schemes have been used to solve the problem of reminding a patient to take a dose of medicine or reminding him he has already taken that dose. The most used ones involve some scheme of compartmentalization of the necessary medication, such that the pills are placed in compartments labeled as to day, to dose number or time of day, or serially numbered. These devices are reasonably satisfactory if a responsible person is available and has the time and patience to fill the compartments properly. These conditions, responsibility, availability, and time are the main drawback to the usual pill-timing devices. Some of them will, however, dispense several pills or pills of several types.
In dispensing pills of a single type, a number of window-containing bottle caps have been invented. Through the window a moveable element marked with index is visible. In only a few devices does the indicating element index in position relative to the window each time the cap is loosened, removed, replaced, and re-tightened. Thus, by looking at the index mark displayed through the window, one can see where in the repetitive sequence of doses one is. The majority of window caps do not have positive stops as they are indexed manually, enabling the user to index two numbers at once. Further, the caps which do index depend on the direction of rotating force on the cap, rather than using positive stops on the bottle as in my invention.
Some existing devices have posts or spindles which penetrate the pill container, at least theoretically allowing liquids or foreign matter to contaminate the pill supply.